Ukweli residents have been left stranded after St. Monica Hospital, once a lifeline for the community, was deserted with no single patient in sight.
The facility, which is run by the Catholic Diocese of Kisumu under the patronage of Bishop Muhatia Makumba, has ground to a halt following a deepening crisis over unpaid staff salaries and lack of essential drugs.
The hospital’s employees, who have gone without pay for the last six months, have been demonstrating daily, demanding their dues and accusing the administration of mismanagement.
Statutory deductions have reportedly not been remitted for up to a year, despite being deducted from their last salaries.
“We could not continue keeping patients in the hospital when there was no food and no drugs to treat them, yet they pay for the services,” said one distressed staff member.
The workers are pointing fingers at the hospital administrator, Rev. Godwin Oluoch, a Catholic priest, whom they accuse of poor leadership, ignoring their pleas, and mismanaging funds.
They allege that despite St. Monica receiving KSh 12 million from the Social Health Authority (SHA), neither salaries were paid nor medicines procured.
Further, the employees claim that KSh 1.1 million raised during a harambee on August 30, 2025, meant to reduce debts owed to staff, has also not been accounted for.
As a result, the hospital, which serves thousands of families in Ukweli and its surroundings, has collapsed, leaving patients with nowhere to turn
. Families who depended on the facility for healthcare and staff who relied on it for their livelihood are now caught in despair.
Community members are urging the Catholic Diocese of Kisumu to urgently intervene to restore services.
Meanwhile, staff are appealing to the Ministry of Health, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), and Nascop to step in and rescue the situation.
Efforts by KTMN to obtain comments from Rev. Oluoch and Bishop Makumba were unsuccessful, as calls and messages went unanswered.
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